Densho Digital Archive
Densho Visual History Collection
Title: Robert T. Ohashi Interview
Narrator: Robert T. Ohashi
Interviewer: Tom Ikeda
Location: Seattle, Washington
Date: June 29, 2011
Densho ID: denshovh-orobert_2-01-0024

<Begin Segment 24>

TI: So we're coming towards the end of the interview. We've been doing this for two hours, and I just wanted to kind of finish by, any last memories or other memories about the pharmacy business before we move on?

RO: Well, I'll tell you, the pharmacy to me, I was very fortunate because it was really a multiethnic group up there on Beacon Hill and they were very good people. It's like I, the story I told you about the girls, they'd bring me the drawing or painting, I'd give 'em a candy bar. But they were trustworthy. I met one of the mothers just the other day. She recognized me. I was in Costco, I think it was. This black lady came up to me and I, she called my name and I says, oh (Yes). I couldn't quite think of what her name was, but her face was the same.

TI: Yeah, it's just such a, it brings back fond memories for me because I grew up in the neighborhood, and it's just a throwback from a different era.

RO: Exactly.

TI: The neighborhood pharmacy, drugstore where it was more than just a pharmacy. It was a place for all the neighborhood kids to buy their comic books.

RO: Sure.

TI: I mean, there was a certain day, I can't remember what day it was, but the comic books would come out on a certain day of the week and we'd all go there to look at the most current Spiderman or whatever.

MO: Sitting on the floor reading.

TI: And we'd sit on the floor reading. [Laughs] Actually we'd tell the, we'd tell our parents we're going to the library, and we'd go, we'd go read your comics.

RO: [Laughs] Well, the one thing, it's like I say, taking a chance, it was no big chance, but trusting these young black gals, they were all nice kids, actually, so they were the only ones that charged. But they all always paid.

TI: So you let these kids actually open, essentially, a charge account at your place, buy on credit.

RO: They were very minimal, actually, but what the heck. I sort of wanted to see, well, to put 'em in the right track too. They were all young gals about, what, they were about twelve or thirteen. (Yes). We had some real nice black customers and charge wise they were excellent.

TI: Good. Okay. So, Bob, so I finished all my questions. Anything else? Anything that I, that you want to talk about before we end this? When you think about your grandchildren, and as they get older, or maybe your great-grandchildren, at some point they'll want to know what you were like and the story. Is there anything that in particular that you want to talk about?

RO: Well, our great-granddaughter, Kristen, she really loves her [points to MO], I think probably even more than her mother. She does. She has great respect for Marian.

TI: But what should she know about Great-Granddad, you, Bob?

RO: She likes to push me around and stuff. [Laughs] She's a big gal, but she --

TI: But if you, if she were to ask and as she got older, what's important in life, what would you tell her?

RO: One thing I'd tell her is to be a good student, behave. She's very outspoken, but she's very smart. These kids nowadays are smart as H. But we've been takin' her to school every day and picking her up and then her mother picks her up, and I hope it's a good experience for her to remember. Now, the other one, Ross's daughter Tani, the older girl, we were at dinner last week or so, and here she comes walking in, she was a blonde. [Laughs]

TI: Oh, so she dyed her hair.

RO: But it looked really nice the way it was.

TI: And what do you think about that, when you see, because she's a Yonsei and she dyes her hair blonde. What, what --

MO: She looked like a movie star.

RO: She looked real good. Surprisingly, she looked real good.

MO: Really nice.

RO: So we had to tell her that. And the other one is really an outgoing gal. They're both very outgoing, but she's gonna be going to London for, through the school, from school.

TI: Okay. Well, so Bob, thank you for doing this interview. We're now gonna interview your wife, so you get to hear her story now, but thank you so much.

RO: No, it's our pleasure.

<End Segment 24> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.